Rami Malek claims that he was once racially profiled by the Los Angeles Police Department.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, the Oscar-winning actor recalled an encounter with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) during which he was allegedly racially profiled and thrown onto a police car while authorities were trying to locate a robber.
“I got thrown on the bonnet of an LAPD cop car because someone had robbed a liquor store and stolen a woman’s bag,” Malek shared. “They said the [thief] was of Latin descent and, ‘You fit the description.’”
Malek, who is of Egyptian descent, recounted the alleged incident at the hands of the police and how his “clever” friend helped him out.
“I remember how hot that engine was, they must have been racing over there and it was almost burning my hands,” the 43-year-old actor said. “My friend, who was Caucasian, was clever enough to go, ‘Actually, sir, he’s Egyptian. Not Latin.’ I remember laughing on the cop car, thinking, ‘OK, this is a very precarious situation. I may well be going to jail for something I’ve not done.’”
Malek did not share specific details on when the incident took place or what happened in the aftermath.
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In his interview with the British outlet, Malek recalled growing up in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, and said his immigrant parents embraced the United States to a degree, “but there was also a definite … I won’t say alienating yourself from certain aspects of the culture, but definitely not accepting them.”
“I don’t know how you ever get over that,” he added. “I’m what’s called ‘white passing,’ but I have very distinctive features, and we definitely didn’t fit in.”
The actor said that his full name, Rami Said Malek, still triggers security alerts when he’s travelling through airports.
“I started to think, ‘What is happening?’ every time I tried to enter a country. These days, there might be a moment. Then they’ll go, ‘Nah, that’s the guy from Bohemian Rhapsody. Let him through,’” he said.
The Bohemian Rhapsody actor also opened up about his anxiety surrounding discrimination against immigrants in the United States that he thinks things could get worse with U.S. President Donald Trump taking office. He said that he read former U.S. president Barack Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, and noted his journey to becoming president.
“The idea that a man with a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas could become president of the United States, it was one of the most hopeful moments from the story of the American dream,” Malek said. “That’s been flipped on its head. I always look at situations like this and just hope that it brings out the absolute best in us.”
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